The present invention relates to a ring protector. More specifically, it relates to a ring protector for preventing tampering of valves positioned inside a railcar dome.
Valves and actuators for tanker railway cars are subject to severe limitations due to standards imposed by various governing bodies, such as the Chlorine Institute and the Association of American Railroads. For instance, a valve/actuator combination must be attachable to the industry standard manway cover which covers the openings in the tanker railcar. A standard railcar 10 having a manway cover 12 is illustrated in FIG. 1. The standard manway cover 12 provides for the attachments of four valves 14, including two valves for liquids and two valves for vapors. Furthermore, all four valves 14 must fit within the confines of a dome 16 covering the manway cover 12. While the prior art dome illustrated in FIG. 1 has four valves, other prior art domes exist with three or five valves.
A sectional view of a standard dome 16 is illustrated in FIG. 2 and a top view of the standard dome 16 is illustrated in FIG. 3. The dome 16 covers and protects the valves 14 placed therein. The dome 16 includes a dome ring 18 surrounding the valves 14 and a convex dome lid 20 overlaying the dome ring 18. As seen in FIG. 3, a plurality of circumferentially and equally spaced bolts 22 attach the dome 16 to the manway cover 12. The dome ring 18 defines four approximately equally spaced dome port openings 24. The dome port openings 24 allow restricted access to the valves 14 positioned inside the dome 16 without removing the dome. The Association of American Railroads provides guidelines for the sizes of both the dome and the dome port openings. The actual sizes of the dome and the dome port openings are normally specified by the car builders based on the guidelines provided the Association of American Railroads.
While the dome port openings 24 provide the convenience of having access to the valves 14 without having to remove the dome 16, the dome port openings 24 also allow moisture to enter into the dome 16 and an unauthorized person to tamper with the valves 14. Such tampering of the valves 14 may release hazardous vapors, such as chlorine, into the atmosphere. To prevent moisture from entering the dome 16, one solution is to mount four rotatable circular plate 26 on the outer surface of the dome ring 18. Each plate 26 is mounted adjacent to a dome port opening 24 such that the plate 26 can be rotated to an opened position in which the plate 26 does not block the dome port opening 24. To prevent moisture from entering the dome 16 through the dome port opening 24, the plate 26 can be rotated to a closed position in which the plate 26 completely blocks the dome port opening 24 as illustrated in FIG. 4. While such prior art circular plates 26 can prevent moisture from entering the dome 16 through the dome port openings 24, the plates 26 cannot prevent an unauthorized person from tampering with the valves 14. Therefore, there exists a need for assuring that the dome port openings remain blocked when authorized access to the valves are not required.
FIG. 1 is a side view of a tanker railcar with a prior art dome attached;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the prior art dome of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is top view of the prior art dome of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a prior art rotatable circular plate mounted to the outer surface of the dome to block the dome port opening;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a ring protector in accordance to the present invention for preventing unauthorized access through the dome port opening;
FIG. 6 is a top view of the ring protector of FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is a side of the ring protector of FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the ring protector of FIG. 5 as situated within a dome;
FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a dome in accordance to the present invention with the ring protector of FIG. 5 situated in the opened position and the dome lid in the opened position;
FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the dome and ring protector of FIG. 9 with the ring protector sit the closed position and the dome lid in the opened position;
FIG. 11 is a sectional view of the dome and ring protector of FIG. 9 with the ring protector situated in the opened position and the dome lid pivoted toward the closed position;
FIG. 12 is a sectional view of the dome and ring protector of FIG. 9 with the ring protector situated in the closed position and the dome lid in the closed position;
FIG. 13 is a top view of a lid bracket in accordance to the present invention; and
FIG. 14 is a side view of the lid bracket of FIG. 13.